My Life and Hard Times

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My Life and Hard Times is the 1933 autobiography of James Thurber. It is considered his greatest work as he relates in bewildered deadpan prose the eccentric goings on of his family and the town beyond. (Columbus, Ohio) Characters include the maid who lives in constant fear of being hypnotised; a grandfather who believes that the Civil War is still going on; and a mother who fears electricity is leaking all over the house. The book was a best seller and achieved high critical praise too. Russell Baker writing in the New York Times said it was "possibly the shortest and most elegant autobiography ever", Ogden Nash said it was "just about the best thing I ever read"', and Dorothy Parker said "Mad, I don't say. Genius I grant you."